The Unlikely Possession of Thunderbird
by outlawstaar
Summary: Utterly pointless, but I think we can all relate with Neal by the end of this fic! Rated cuz it might just scare the kiddies!


Actually, I really DO own Xtreme X-Men. That conniving SOB Chris Claremont stole my great idea! ::Alarm goes off:: Oh…dear…. Musta been dreaming…  
  
The Unlikely Possession of Thunderbird  
  
Neal whistled a little tune to himself as he walked down the hall of what he had dubbed the "X-Suite". In the true scope of things, he sure had it easy as a mutant. His powers did not stand out by any means, he was handsome, had some of the richest friends in the world, and if he ever did have to use his powers in public he could always say that he was the Indian Human Torch. He might even be able to hook up with one of the cuter bystanders with a line like that. Sure, he had to repel the occasional villainous uprising, and then there was that search for those diaries, but most of the time he could chill in the mother of all penthouse apartments smack in the middle of beautiful Sydney Australia.  
  
Unfortunately at the moment, things were quite boring. That hot new Lifeguard chick and her idiot brother Davis were out at the beach somewhere, Ororo was watering plants up on her little rooftop greenhouse, Remy and Rogue were taking a stroll downtown, Sage was off doing her own little thing, and Bishop was out stuffing down donuts with Terri Baltimore. Well, at least he's not riding my ass at the moment, Neal thought with a chuckle.   
  
Still, there wasn't much to do. He accidentally left all his good CD's back at the mansion, and Australian TV sucked. Suddenly, he remembered that since Sage was out getting her weekly allotment of fresh air and sunshine, the computer was actually free. Neal ran like a giddy school boy over to the team's computer. As he set his glass of water on the table, his first intuition was to go online, but Neal's desire for fun soon led him to the games section instead.  
  
"Hmm, I've beaten Solitaire and Minesweeper plenty of times before," he said aloud, for the sake of hearing a human voice against the otherwise silent room. "Hey! I'll try my hand at this Free Cell thingy…"  
  
Neal opened up to the familiar green screen and had the computer display the cards. The rules were pretty straightforward, sorta like Solitaire but with more cards at a time. Neal got to work on the game.  
  
"Let's see, I can place this jack on that queen. Hey, look at those ace's go up to the top all on their own! Cool! Hmm, I'll bring this five up to the top here, and move this six to that seven, and then I'll take this three an-"  
  
Suddenly, a window shot up on the screen. "Sorry, you lose. There are no more legal moves. Do you want to try again?"  
  
"Damn!" muttered Neal. He clicked "Ok" and started again. In mere minutes, the only move he could make was transferring a jack from one queen to another. "Uggh!" exclaimed Neal as he started anew.  
  
The minutes stretched into hours. "You lose, you lose, YOU LOSE!" Neal's eyes began to grow red from exposure to the screen. He stopped talking. Breathing was carefully regulated. He played on.  
  
Eventually, the rest of the team filtered back into the apartment, and after noticing the rather comical look of seriousness on the newbie's face, Rogue brought the rest of the team into the room, much to Neal's dismay.  
  
"Hey, look you can move this card over here," advised Sage.  
  
"You can bring up that card to the top," said Rogue.  
  
"Oh, you lost again! Keep trying, mate, we're rooting for ya!" mused Davis.  
  
"Let me try! My power'll have all the cards come out perfectly no matter what I do!" said Lifeguard.  
  
"Course, Gambit be good wit da cards naturally, chere," said gambit seductive;y before Rogue hit him in the ribs.  
  
The unwanted commentary filled Neal with raw anger, held in check only by his unending desire to beat the damn game. However, this wouldn't hold for long, and it wasn't too surprising to see who finally provided the last straw.  
  
"Oh dear, you worried too much about bringing up that ace that you forgot it wouldn't leave you with any cards afterwards," chanted Bishop. "Common rookie mistake!"  
  
Neal's eyes turned beet red.  
  
"Uh, did it just get hot in here?" asked a slightly frightened Rogue.  
  
Still playing the game with his right hand, Neal's pointed his first two left fingers into the air, which were both surrounded be a fiery red and orange plasma glow. He stuck them into his glass of water. The liquid vaporized immediately, and the glass began to glow. Still playing, he began to mold the molten glass. With eerie precision, he molded a horrific looking human skull out of the glass, and displayed it on the desk for all to see. His teammates backed away, fearing for their lives lest Neal decided to use his powers any further.  
  
Suddenly, as Neal placed a cluster of cards to an empty space, he exposed all the cards in order, which instantly flew to their spaces at the top of the screen, followed by the enlarged jack at the bottom of the window. The temperature instantly returned to normal, and the weird glow that had begun to form around Neal dissipated.  
  
"Hey guys! I finally won! Guys? What's wrong? Bishop, why are you carrying that fire extinguisher!?"  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Wow, while not my favorite character, Thunderbird III seems to be a wonderful source for good fanfics! More to come soon! 


End file.
